Female Belted Kingfisher

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Buffleheads on Lake Nelson

Mike saw two male bufflehead fly in early this morning. We watched them for a while, took some photos, but decided to go to Lenape Park in search of a red headed woodpecker. When we got back home, there were five male and one female bufflehead. We stayed outside watching them for most of the sunny afternoon. They did fly at dusk, but we aren't sure if it was a short flight within the lake or if they were continuing their migration.

Red-Headed Woodpecker

Mike has been wanting to see a red-headed woodpecker for some time. Chris got a glimpse of one in Cape May this spring. There was even talk of a vacation to where they spend the winter. However, on the JerseyBirds mailing list (see Jersey Birding Links on the right), someone reported seeing one near us. So, we took off this morning following the directions exactly:

There was one, possibly two, Red-headed Woodpeckers in Lenape Park in Cranford this morning at 9:00. Park in the lot off of Kenilworth Boulevard. Walk on the dyke towards Westfield (going away from Kenilworth Boulevard). Stop about ten feet past the first sign on the dyke and look to the right. The adult bird was very active and vocal. This is the same location where this species showed up a few years ago and was present for the winter.

We are posting this picture for Kenny, who we met there but unfortunately arrived a little too late today for the red-headed woodpecker. We saw flickers, red-bellied, and downies as well, but the red-headed woodpecker was what we were after. Thanks Hank.

Below is a picture of the tree that shows that woodpeckers are present.

I just saw this bird, the male, at the Mack-Cali building in Clark, NJ(an office building just a mile down the road from Lenope Park). I don't know anything about birds, but I was curious knowing I had never seen this type of bird before. I found it eveb more odd that it was standing just outside the entrance the building. It just sat there not even a foot from me for a few minutes and didn't move very much. Think it could have been sick?

I found the type of bird on google and searched for red-bellied woodpeckers in NJ and it brought me to this exact page.

Jersey Birding Links

Birds at the Bird feeders

About us

For those of you visiting this site who do not know us, we thought we would offer a brief explanation of how it all happened. We have lived in several different states, including Connecticut, New Hampshire, California, Virginia, and New Jersey. The house we rented sits right on a small lake, so we initially saw lots of geese and some mallards, rather mundane yet enjoyable. There seemed to also be an abundance of woodpeckers, and we started putting suet out for them. Mike frequently gets up early, and while working from his desk in the window this past fall, he noticed something other than geese on the lake. At first it started with a Pied-billed grebe, and then we also saw briefly a Wood Duck or two, a few Ring-necked ducks, Bufflhead, and then the gorgeous Hooded Mergansers. Well, we’ve fed birds before at other homes, but we’ve never lived on water, and we were especially fascinated by the beauty of the Hooded Mergansers. We have two grown daughters and family sprinkled around the US, and we were constantly e-mailing them pictures of the birds and ducks, so we decided it would just be easier to put them up on the web to share. We are not real die-hard birders, and we have no formal photography training. We’re just a couple who is enjoying the birds and waterfowl of their own backyard and wanted to share them. So, you may find more professional pictures somewhere else, but we hope you enjoy our site as well.

We moved back to California in June 2012, and we've started a new blog, California Birds. Here are our most recent California photos.